The government of Western Australia is coming to Down Under Live in London to recruit skilled workers to help tackle the state’s impending skill shortages.

According to a respected economic analyst, Peter Kenyon, professor of economic policy at Perth’s Curtin University, the state is set to revisit the skills shortages that were the downside of the mining boom that ended in late 2008.

‘‘WA is doing well in terms of population growth and labour supply is increasing … we are likely to see a little bit of amelioration in the absolute skills shortage that we saw towards the end of the boom in 2008,’’ Prof Kenyon said. ‘‘I think that will be short-lived.

‘‘I think before very long we will again see the job advertisements increasing for waiters and all sorts of staff in the windows of all the businesses around Perth.

‘‘Not enough time has passed for us to build the skills base to get over that shortage.’’

As part of its commitment to build a strong base of skills in the state, representatives from the state’s Immigration and Health departments will be at the show, recruiting for a range of state sponsored jobs, and interviewing likely candidates. The participation of Western Australia at Down Under Live London, comes on the back of a successful show in Birmingham, where over 1,300 people came to the show in search of a new life in Australia or New Zealand.

Over 3,000 people are expected to attend the London event, and pre registrations are already strong, with jobseekers looking to take advantage of the pre show offer of 2 tickets for £10.

Anyone interested in getting tickets for the event should call 01179 323586 01179 323586 or go to www.downunderlive.co.uk

UNIVERSITIES are urging the Government to ease immigration restrictions on academics to help head off a looming shortage as large numbers of baby-boomer professors and lecturers retire.

Amid the fallout from the global financial crisis, the Government in March moved to cut the permanent skilled migration intake. But universities, which see migration as a way to overcome looming academic skills shortages, are warning that the move could leave the economy short when it recovers.

universitiesof five universities, said in a briefing paper.

“In fact, it has the potential to see the economy left wanting precisely at the time we expect to see improved economic conditions.”

The ATN is lobbying Immigration Minister Chris Evans to ease restrictions on academic migration to make it easier to recruit offshore amid rising competition globally for academics.

Between 1994 and 2006, Australian universities employed more than 7000 academics from overseas on permanent or long-term arrangements.

“This figure will need to grow expotentially to replace the exodus of academics leaving the workforce in the next 15 years,” the ATN said.